“Pink Slime” manufacturer turns out to be a major Romney donor

Inevitably, appropriately, the corporation behind much-hyped and much-maligned "pink slime" is run by a key Mitt Romney donor. Eldon Roth, the founder of Beef Products, is such a big Romney supporter that he's even cited in the candidate's 2010 book, No Apology, as a paragon of the American dream:

"America's industries and domestic markets are, in fact, breeding grounds for innovation. A young Eldon Roth held a blue-collar job in a cold-storage plant where beef was frozen soon after it was butchered. His idea: Instead of slowly freezing the meat in walk-in freezers, why not place the beef on conveys and pass it between two supercold drums, instantly freezing it to lock in flavor? Eldon now owns a very large jet. Far more important than that, he has created hundreds of jobs."

This adulation most likely relates to the $190,000 of beef money Roth donated to Romney's campaign in 2010, or the fundraiser he threw for him last year. Then again, it's in keeping with everything we already know about Mitt Romney that he'd be more impressed by jet ownership than, say, concern for protecting the public from ingesting disgusting chemicals in their food.

Romney has yet to comment on his connection to Roth, but I have to assume a painfully misguided sound-bite ("I'm not concerned with the very fat…") is just around the corner for Slimegate 2012.